According to a study in the March 1 JBJS, active range of abduction may only partially correlate with patients’ self-assessed function of osteoarthritic shoulders. The researchers analyzed the relationship between objective range-of-motion measurements as recorded by an observer-independent motion capture system against Simple Shoulder Test (SST) patient self-assessments of shoulder function for 104 patients with osteoarthritis. 

They found poor correlation between objective measurements of active abduction and total SST scores of osteoarthritic shoulders of patients seen prior to shoulder surgery. The relationship between objective motion and subjective function did not differ significantly between male and female patients. The researchers write that both objective and subjective measurements are important in characterizing clinical status, and argue that studies of treatment outcomes should include separate assessments of both complementary aspects of shoulder function. Learn more...